Top Community College in NJ
Raritan Valley Community College has been given top honors by WalletHub.com and Niche.com. Both websites have ranked RVCC as the best community college in New Jersey in 2022. RVCC also was included in Washington Monthly’s 2021 Best Colleges for Student Voting Honor Roll.
All-USA Academic Team
RVCC student Sangeetha Punnam, a General Science/Pre-Health Professional major and a member of the Academy for Health and Medical Sciences, Class of 2022, is one of 20 college students in the country to be named to the prestigious All-USA Academic Team. Punnam, who is being recognized for her intellectual achievement, leadership, and community and campus engagement, receives a $5,000 scholarship for this honor. More than 2,200 students were nominated for the award.
Honor Society Wins International Awards
RVCC’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society received several international awards—including the #5 Distinguished Chapter Award—at the honor society’s annual convention in April. The College was lauded with awards for Distinguished College Project, Distinguished Honors in Action, and Distinguished Officer Team. Several individuals also were honored with awards, including Distinguished Chapter Officer (Yash Goyal), Distinguished Chapter Member (William Kohut), and Paragon Award for New Advisors (Janelle Bitter).
Newman Civic Fellow
Yash Goyal, a Business Administration major and a member of the Honors College, Class of 2022, has been selected as a national Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact. Goyal is among a group of 173 student civic leaders in the US and Mexico who comprise the organization’s 2022-2023 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows. Goyal has been active in the College’s Service Learning Program, Environmental Club, Rotaract, Sanofi Corporate Mentorship Program, and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. Some of his efforts to create positive change in the local community and at RVCC have included volunteering at statewide beach clean-ups; removing invasive plant species in rain gardens; repairing deer enclosures; working to restore gardens for future planting; and writing articles on climate change, through the College's Center for Environmental Studies. Goyal also has served as the student representative on the advisory board for the Morris and Dorothy Hirsch Research Library of The Holocaust, Genocide, and Racism at RVCC and has volunteered at Rutgers University packing COVID-19 testing kits to be sent to neighboring communities.
Sustainability Efforts Recognized
For the seventh year in a row, RVCC has been nationally recognized for its sustainability efforts by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). RVCC has earned a STARS Silver rating for its sustainability achievements. STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education. The STARS program ranks RVCC as #6 overall for two-year colleges in the US and Canada for its sustainability efforts.
RVCC is also tied for #6 as a Top Performer in the “Water” category among all colleges in the US and Canada. RVCC is ranked as the #1 two-year institution in the Air & Climate category. Its Air & Climate high rank reflects the fact that in 2017 RVCC became the first two-year institution of higher education in the country to achieve carbon neutrality for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. The College also is River Friendly and is Bee Campus USA and Monarch Watch certified.
Women’s Volleyball Ranked 9th in US
The RVCC Women’s Volleyball team had a stellar season, finishing with a rank of #9 in the country in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region XIX. The 9th-place finish is the highest ranking in the program's history. The Lions secured their place in the NJCAA DIII National Championship Tournament after winning both the Region XIX Championship and the North Atlantic District A Championship. The NJCAA DIII National Championship Tournament was held in November in Rochester, MN. Since no Tournament was held in 2020, this marked back-to-back trips to the national competition for the team, which finished in 10th place in 2019.
Eduardo J. Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation
Raritan Valley Community College was one of six colleges and universities in the country to be recognized by Campus Compact in 2020 for outstanding work in pursuit of the public purposes of higher education. RVCC was one of only two community colleges in the US—and the only New Jersey college—to receive the first Eduardo J. Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation. The College was honored for its longstanding commitment to providing all students with access to civic and community-based learning experiences through its nationally recognized Service Learning Program.
Shirley B. Gordon Award
RVCC President Dr. Michael McDonough was one of only 13 college presidents in the country—and the only president from a New Jersey college—in 2020 to receive the Shirley B. Gordon Award from the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. The awards, which are the organization’s most prestigious honor for community college presidents, are given to college presidents in recognition of their work supporting student success on campus. Dr. McDonough was nominated for the award by Alpha Epsilon Pi, RVCC’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter, for his ongoing support of both its Honors in Action and College projects.
